Mother found guilty in boy's scalding death

After nearly 12 hours of deliberations over three days, Broward County jurors on Monday convicted a Coral Springs mother of aggravated manslaughter and aggravated child abuse for the scalding death of her 3-year-old son.

On Christmas Day 2005, Valerie Kennedy forced Jaquez Mason into a bath as hot as 138 degrees as punishment for dirtying his diaper, prosecutor Shari Tate said last week in closing arguments.

A medical examiner told jurors it would have taken about 20 seconds for Jaquez to be burned so severely. To illustrate the examiner's point, Tate had the jury sit in silence for 20 dramatic seconds.

"That's how long he fought his mother for his life," Tate said.

Defense attorney Young Tindall argued that Kennedy, 32, was negligent, not a spiteful, deliberate murderer.

Covered from ribs to toes in third-degree burns, Jaquez went untreated for a week at his grandmother's Deerfield Beach home. He dehydrated, his organs shut down and he bled internally. He died on New Year's Day 2006.

Tate had sought a conviction of felony first-degree murder, punishable by life in prison.

Instead, Kennedy now faces a maximum of 60 years in prison when she returns to Broward Circuit Judge Jeffrey Levenson's courtroom for sentencing on Nov. 16.

The eight-man, four-woman jury heard from Kennedy's 9-year-old daughter, who said her mother put Jaquez into the bath and pushed him down by the shoulders when he tried to get out because "he did number two . . . in his Pamper."

They heard from Kennedy's roommate, who said she vomited at the sight of Jaquez's scalded body, the flesh melting off his feet. And they heard from a pediatric emergency room doctor who said Jaquez's "massive, severe burns" were "probably the worst case of child abuse" he'd ever seen.

The jurors looked at startling photos of the underweight child.

Jurors declined to comment as they left the Broward County Courthouse on Monday.

Because of child abuse allegations, Kennedy was not supposed to have contact with her children. Her mother, Annie Williams, was raising five of Kennedy's seven children, Jaquez included, and had allowed the Christmas Day visit despite a court order.

After Jaquez was burned, Kennedy called her mother, who wrapped the 26-pound boy in a towel and took him to her Deerfield Beach home. There she doctored him with powder, ointments and children's Tylenol, until he stopped breathing a week later.

Williams, 53, has also been charged with first-degree murder. Her trial is tentatively set for Dec. 4.

Staff Writer Lisa Huriash contributed to this report.

Tonya Alanez can be reached at tealanez@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4542.